


Betrayal

by flutter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Betrayal, Death, Gen, coward - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-30
Updated: 2005-09-30
Packaged: 2017-11-12 02:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/485632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flutter/pseuds/flutter





	Betrayal

“You’ve used them—all of them.”   
  
She wasn’t supposed to be acting this way, she knew. She was, after all, a Slytherin, and Slytherin’s didn’t let emotions run them over so thoroughly. But this was no longer a time of Quidditch games and nasty curses flung down hallways.   
  
The Dark Lord had fled. Dumbledore was dead. Of the few students and professors who remained at Hogwarts when the War started, only Flitwick and that ridiculous Neville Longbottom lived. Even the know-it-all Granger was dead.  
  
Pansy thought about that for a moment; a small glimmer of another self—as if from a hundred years before—poked it’s bobbed head out at the idea of that stupid cow, Granger, snuffing it. She felt a smile curl in her mind. But then she thought of how Granger died. How she deflected a killing curse meant for Longbottom by using herself as a conduit for a magical shield. How that shield cracked, letting the curse bleed through to her heart, when she saw Weasley fall.   
  
What must it be like, she wondered, to love so much that you fall nearly the exact moment your lover does. It was practically in unison, she remembered now, that they fell, nearly stride for stride. She had hovered on the edge of the coupled battles, watching outcomes rather than fighting—keeping score.   
  
She had watched Weasley collapse underneath Lucius Malfoy’s power. Watched Potter struggle for the lives of his friends.   
  
Watched Potter kill Lucius Malfoy.  
  
 _Malfoy_ , she thought. _Draco_.  
  
Pansy looked down at her hands in her lap, placed them palm down, and felt the heat of them through her jeans. When she looked back up—back up at the boy who stood silent before her—her eyes glistened with unshed tears.   
  
“You’ve used them”—she repeated—“and me.”  
  
She nearly missed the imperceptible nod of his head. And just then a few quick, hot tears slipped free. They streaked, black against her pale skin.  
  
 _I hope he sees_ , she thought. _I hope he sees and it kills him_. She knew it wouldn’t, but she hoped.  
  
“Why?” It was less than a whisper.  
  
“The Dark Lord,” he said.  
  
“Oh, fuck the Dark Lord, Draco.” Her voice was probably too loud. She could hear it echoing in the halls. “He left us. He left while they fought—while our friends were killed by both sides.”  
  
Again, he nodded.  
  
“While your father died,” she said softly.  
  
Something hardened in his face, his lips turned thin.   
  
“A worthy sacrifice then,” he said, a hiss through his teeth.  
  
“You believe that, do you?”  
  
When he stood there staring down at her, stone-faced and hardened, she rose to match his stance. His eyes were the only part of him to move and they followed her.  
  
“I look at you now,” she said on a breath. “I look and I don’t even recognize you.”  
  
She stepped directly in front of him, so close she could feel his breath storm over her skin. Her eyes searched for something—anything—telling that would give her an edge.  
  
Still he said nothing and she realized he would keep his silence unless she pushed.  
  
“Coward.”  
  
 _There_ , she thought. _There_. And for a moment—what felt like hours under the blaze—she saw it. There was a fire in his eyes—it leaped, danced, all but jumped through him and into her. She reached to touch his face but before she registered his movement he already had her wrist in a tight grip.  
  
She tried to see past the fire. “You’d hurt me too, Draco? See me dead?”   
  
He loosened his hold on her, no flash of remorse crossed his face. Nothing showed but the slip of a cold sneer, reminiscent of his father.  
  
“And who are you supposed to be to me,” he asked.  
  
She nodded, as if she expected his answer. She knew, though, that it was all she could manage while the pain gripped her—as it ran through her blood, cold as ice.  
  
“You’re too weak to defy him,” she said before she snatched her wrist from him and stepped back.  
  
“You’re too weak and now we’re dead—all of us are dead.”  
  
When his eyes slid to slits and he moved forward a fraction of an inch, she shuddered and stepped further away.   
  
“You could have stopped all of this.”


End file.
